Pundits are calling for better software and security to run the Internet of Things or they predict failure of the promise that the technology can potentially provide.
That is according to Vint Cerf, pictured,a co-developer of the Internet protocol and chief Internet evangelist for Google.
“We should be extremely thoughtful about the quality of IoT software,” Cerf told EE Times. “People are relying on these things to work autonomously, and these days almost anything can become a programmable, communicating device because the chips are so inexpensive.”
Security remains perhaps the biggest concern.
“I used to joke that my biggest concern was that 100,000 refrigerators will attack Bank of America – and now with Dyn’s experience, that’s real,” Cerf said.
He was referring to the October 2016 attack on Dyn Corp. that took it – and many other companies for which it resolves domain names – off the Web for a time.
The answer, Cerf believes, is developing the discipline to apply existing tools such as digital certificates and authentication, and using encrypted keys.
